MLS: Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew Preview, Odds, Prediction

Orlando City and Columbus Crew promise a good match at the Exploria Stadium on Saturday night. The Lions are currently second in East, six points behind New England, but with two games in hand, meaning that they might even attack the top spot in the conference if everything goes well in the next few weeks. As for the Crew, they are eight in the standings, three points behind the last playoff seed. They snapped a row of terrible results the previous weekend and are coming to Florida with high hopes.

Preview

Orlando City (-160) posted mixed results recently, allowing Revolution to stay in front, despite its shaky form. For the moment, the Lions have only one victory over the recent six matches, and that was against Chicago Fire at home on August 22, 1-0.

Their latest game was against Inter Miami, a state derby, that saw no goals. Like always, Oscar Pareja’s guys are defensive-minded on the field, trying to protect their net first and attack later.

During the above-mentioned stretch of six games, not a single one ended with more than two goals, and three of the last four were with just one side netting. Orlando wants to slow down the tempo of the match whenever possible, and to kill the rhythm, because they work better that way.

Columbus Crew (+450) had six consecutive defeats that saw them slipping from the playoff zone of the Eastern Conference. They would lose three games at home and on the road each, but managed to snap that streak the previous weekend, beating Cincinnati, 3-2.

They are a highly unstable group of guys who have excellent performances and disappear after that. You can’t find some sort of a pattern in their events, especially when it comes to efficiency.

Columbus has several matches with high productivity, but after that, plays two dull and inefficient games. It is simply the way this team functions.

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Pato is out because of his injury, while Oriol Rosell and Jhedson Mendez have respective injuries that will set them apart from the field for this match.

Things are much worse for the guests, who are without Artur, Hairston, Kitchen, Morris, Williams, and two big-time players, Valenzuela and Gyasi Zardes.

Head to Head Games

The last game between these teams was in March, and Orlando defeated Columbus, 0-1. Though, it was a friendly contest.

The Lions have some sort of a formula for this opponent, winning the previous five head-to-head events, keeping clean sheets on three occasions.

Prediction

This is a must-win situation for the home team. The Lions are facing an injured opponent who is, by the way, in pretty poor shape. They will simply need to collect three points in this match and continue pursuing the top spot in the conference.

We will not suggest any other pick than this and avoid goals or anything similar because that is too risky. Betting on Orlando’s plain win is the best possible choice, and the odds here are more than suitable.

Pick: Orlando -160